[meteorite-list] New evidence for microbial fossils in Martianmeteorite

From: Becky and Kirk <bandk_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Sun, 9 May 2010 09:42:45 -0500
Message-ID: <5C27B28260BF4890BE45FA7ADC7F27D0_at_owner55652f88b>

Ah yes-----extemeophiles---also found in thje sulphur pits in Yosemite.

One extreme organism even survived underneath a panel on the Surveyor
unmanned space probe that landed on the Moon.

Kirk........


----- Original Message -----
From: "Melanie Matthews" <miss_meteorite at yahoo.ca>
To: "Meteorite-list Meteoritecentral" <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2010 12:49 AM
Subject: Re: [meteorite-list] New evidence for microbial fossils in
Martianmeteorite


> Hope this posts..
>
>
> Anyways,, it states something to the effect that the softer upper layers
> of Mars are unlikely to survive entry through Earth's atmosphere? Then
> what about Howardites and some of the chondrites which can be quite
> friable?
>
> I watched this program on TV about the presence of life in extreme
> environments - living things have been found thriving in places and in
> substances never before considered possible, such as in crude oil in
> Panama with little to no water or oxygen and in the glaciers on the summit
> of Mt.Kenya where radiation from the suns rays can be intense..
>
> -----------
> Melanie
> IMCA: 2975
> eBay: metmel2775
> Known on SkyRock Cafe as SpaceCollector09
>
> Unclassified meteorites are like a box of chocolates... you never know
> what you're gonna get!
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Robert Verish <bolidechaser at yahoo.com>
> To: Meteorite-list Meteoritecentral <meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com>
> Sent: Thu, May 6, 2010 9:58:58 AM
> Subject: [meteorite-list] Re: New evidence for microbial fossils in
> Martian meteorite
>
> Hello List,
>
> Whatever your opinion is on this subject, I'm sure we can all agree on
> this one thing - and that one thing was well-stated by McKay himself and
> was quoted in the last paragraph of that recent article. Here it is:
>
> ----------------- Attached Text -------------------
> In a plenary session, in which Squyres solicited the group's views on
> how the field should move forward, McKay stood up to say that examining
> possible Martian microfossils should be a much higher priority. He said
> that the "biomorphs" now being found could answer some of the basic
> questions about life on Mars and that it could be done at a much lower
> cost than the multibillion-dollar alternative plan -- sending a rover to
> Mars to pick up some rock samples and bringing them back to Earth.
>
> "These meteorites are samples from Mars," he said, "and need to be
> treated as the valuable resource they are."
> -------------------------------------------
>
> These are my sentiments, as well.
> Bob V.
>
>
> ----------------------- Attached Message --------------------
> [meteorite-list] NASA Team Cites New Evidence That Meteorites From Mars
> Contain Ancient Fossils
> Ron Baalke baalke at zagami.jpl.nasa.gov
> Wed May 5 18:53:16 EDT 2010
>
>
> http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/30/AR2010043002000.html
>
> NASA team cites new evidence that meteorites from Mars contain ancient
> fossils
>
> By Marc Kaufman
> Washington Post
> May 4, 2010
>
> LEAGUE CITY, TEX. -- NASA's Mars Meteorite Research Team reopened a
> 14-year-old controversy on extraterrestrial life last week, reaffirming
> and offering support for its widely challenged assertion that a
> 4-billion-year-old meteorite that landed thousands of years ago on
> Antarctica shows evidence of microscopic life on Mars.
>
> In addition to presenting research that they said disproved some of
> their critics, the scientists reported that additional Martian
> meteorites appear to house distinct and identifiable microbial fossils
> that point even more strongly to the existence of life.
>
> "We feel more confident than ever that Mars probably once was, and maybe
> still is, home to life," team leader David McKay said at a
> NASA-sponsored conference on astrobiology.
>
> The researchers' presentations were not met with any of the excited
> frenzy that greeted the original 1996 announcement about the meteorite
> -- which led to a televised statement by President Bill Clinton in which
> he announced a "space summit," the formation of a commission to examine
> its implications and the birth of a NASA-funded astrobiology program.
>
> Fourteen years of relentless criticism have turned many scientists
> against the McKay results, and the Mars meteorite "discovery" has
> remained an unresolved and somewhat awkward issue. This has continued
> even though the team's central finding -- that Mars once had living
> creatures -- has gained broad acceptance among the biologists, chemists,
> geologists, astronomers and other scientists who make up the
> astrobiology community.
>
> Speaking at a four-day conference near NASA's Johnson Space Center,
> McKay's team didn't claim it had definitive proof that the meteorites
> they are studying -- which can be identified as Martian because the
> gases inside them match the Martian atmosphere -- contain the remains of
> living organisms. Rather, the researchers described their re-energized
> confidence as emerging from a process of nitty-gritty science, based on
> inference, simulated testing and a kind of interplanetary forensics.
>
> McKay cited years of work by team members Kathie Thomas-Keprta and Simon
> Clemett that he said rebuts a central critique of the meteorite's
> significance. He also pointed to the presence of what appear to be
> fossilized microbes in other Martian meteorites, as well as the steady
> flow of discoveries by others pointing to a Mars that at one time could
> have supported life -- wet, warmer and enveloped in a potentially
> protective atmosphere and a magnetic field.
>
> Rebutting the critics
>
> The Thomas-Keprta work, published late last year in the journal
> Geochemica, centers on the origin of iron-based crystals called
> magnetites in the original Mars meteorite, called ALH84001. Magnetites
> on Earth are sometimes created by bacteria that respond to the planet's
> magnetic field; the McKay team argued that some of the Martian
> magnetites were of this biologically created type.
>
> Critics had said that the magnetites could have just as easily existed
> without bacteria or biology -- that they sometimes form as a result of
> the shock and searing heat that could come, for instance, from an
> asteroid strike. But in the recent paper, Thomas-Keprta, an expert in
> the use of electron beam technology to look inside rocks, reported that
> the purity of the magnetites made that explanation impossible.
>
> Reflecting both the contentiousness and drama of the debate,
> Thomas-Keprta finished her talk by referring to a recent article in a
> science journal that said the astrobiology community had "mostly
> abandoned" the biological explanations for the makeup of ALH84001. Her
> retort: "As Mark Twain put it, 'Reports of our death have been greatly
> exaggerated.' "
>
> McKay complained that not enough attention had been paid to work such as
> Thomas-Keprta's.
>
> "All the criticisms of our original paper got widely distributed, but
> when we did the work to prove the critics were wrong, it hardly made a
> ripple," he said at a conference interview. "We're now in a position to
> say we've knocked down all the criticisms -- and our biological
> explanation is the one left standing."
>
> Mary Voytek, director of NASA's astrobiology program, praised McKay and
> his team for their continued research into Mars meteorites, saying they
> have been crucial to the field.
>
> She said, however, that the astrobiology community as a whole remained
> unconvinced of their findings, in part because "the bar is so high." She
> also said it was still not proved that any possible microfossils on the
> meteorites had come from Mars, rather than forming as contaminants after
> the meteorites landed on Earth. In addition, all the Martian meteorites
> consist of hard igneous rock; the more fragile sedimentary rock, which
> is most likely to contain sign of life, falls apart before reaching Earth.
>
> Strong feelings
>
> Because the stakes involved with any announcement of possible or likely
> extraterrestrial life are so high -- both for science and for the
> societal and religious implications of such a discovery -- the issue
> brings out very strong feelings. At the conference, a leading cautionary
> voice in astrobiology proposed that a special protocol be established to
> oversee release of any journal articles making dramatic extraterrestrial
> claims.
>
> Andrew Steele, of the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington and
> once a member of the McKay team, compared the absence of astrobiology
> review with the formal procedures set up by scientists involved with the
> search for extraterrestrial life, or SETI.
>
> He said that SETI leaders understood the societal sensitivity of their
> work and that it was time for researchers in astrobiology "grow up and
> do the same."
>
> Astrobiology is the relatively new field of science that both searches
> for and tries to understand life beyond Earth, as well as how life began
> on Earth. The biennial conference attracted more than 700
> microbiologists, chemists, geologists, astronomers, geochemists and
> other researchers drawn into what might be science's most
> interdisciplinary field.
>
> Even as scientists debate McKay's assertions, the field has become
> increasingly optimistic about the possibility of finding remains (or
> perhaps even samples) of microbial life on Mars. Scores of papers
> presented during the conference supported the view that the now dry and
> frigid planet once was warm, wet and seemingly quite habitable.
>
> For instance, NASA planetary scientist Carol Stoker said that NASA's
> Phoenix lander -- which touched down near the Martian north polar region
> in 2008 -- found conditions that were harsh but even today suitable for
> life. Stoker, who was a co-investigator for several instruments on the
> Phoenix, said that data sent back met predetermined criteria that would
> indicate that the area could have supported Martian life even in recent
> times.
>
> Steven Squyres, another top scientist with extensive knowledge of Mars,
> said that he, too, is convinced that Mars once had conditions that could
> support life.
>
> The principal investigator for the two NASA rovers, Spirit and
> Opportunity, that have traveled Mars for the past six years, Squyres
> said that Mars once had water at or near the surface, now has many
> minerals that can be formed only in the presence of water and even had
> springs that once produced hot water and steam.
>
> "These are all things that lead to local habitable niches," he said.
> "When you have the evidence right there in front of you for
> habitability, it makes a convincing case that you better go out and see
> if anyone lived out there."
>
> In a plenary session, in which Squyres solicited the group's views on
> how the field should move forward, McKay stood up to say that examining
> possible Martian microfossils should be a much higher priority. He said
> that the "biomorphs" now being found could answer some of the basic
> questions about life on Mars and that it could be done at a much lower
> cost than the multibillion-dollar alternative plan -- sending a rover to
> Mars to pick up some rock samples and bringing them back to Earth.
>
> "These meteorites are samples from Mars," he said, "and need to be
> treated as the valuable resource they are."
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Received on Sun 09 May 2010 10:42:45 AM PDT